ataca

Forms

ataca (third-person singular present atacă, past participle atacat, third-person subjunctive atace) 1st conjugation^[1] Older texts also have atăca, the rare atacui and atacarisi.^[2][3]

Etymology

It is borrowed from French attaquer (“to attack”), a 19th-century neologism.^[4][3][5][1] DELR names borrowed from Italian attaccare beside the French verb, and Tiktin gives only the Italian word.^[2][6] The DA takes it from French and compares the Italian verb.^[7]

French took the verb from Italian in 1540 as a military term.^[8][2] The origin of the Italian verb is disputed.^[2][8] DELR follows the DELI in calling it probably a loan from Old Occitan atacar or Old French attacher (“to attach”), which is formed on estache (“stake”), from Frankish *stakka.^[2] DELR finds a derivation from tacca (“notch, mark”) hard to accept on semantic grounds, and one from staccare (“to detach”) (Battisti–Alessio, Treccani) unlikely, because that verb is recorded later.^[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

DELR's first record is from 1794, the participle atecat in a Vienna calendar, probably a misprint.^[2] Tiktin dates the verb to 1823 and MDA2 to the 1872 edition of Costache Negruzzi's writings.^[6][3] In Negruzzi it is used of words: the government shut a literary paper down on the pretext that it attacked religion.^[7]

Semantic evolution

The military sense, to start a fight against an enemy, and the figurative one, to oppose an idea or a person in words or in print, came in together.^[2][7] Pontbriant in 1862 gives the verb for French attaquer, assaillir and figuratively offenser.^[9] Of illness and chemicals it means to damage or eat away: the DA quotes Negruzzi on remorse that “attacked” a man's health, and acids that attack metals.^[7][10] In law it means to contest a judgement or a will; in music, to begin playing a piece; in sport, to take the initiative.^[4][11]

Popular speech used the reflexive a se ataca for falling ill with tuberculosis, a se ataca la plămâni.^[3][6] Colloquially, to attack someone is also to ask them for money: Vlahuță's te atac c-un pol asks for a napoleon (pol).^[6][7] In slang the reflexive means to get angry.^[4][12]

Timeline

• 1794 – the participle atecat in a Vienna calendar, the first record.^[2]
• c. 1800 – the noun atac, from French attaque and Italian attacco.^[2]
• 1823 – Tiktin's first date for the verb.^[6]
• 1840 – atacabil and atacant.^[2]
• 1861 – neatacabil in Odobescu.^[2]
• 1870 – atacator and inatacabil in Costinescu's dictionary.^[2]
• 1872 – the edition of Negruzzi's writings in which MDA2 finds the verb.^[3]
• 1873 – contraatac in Maiorescu.^[2]
• 1921 – contraataca.^[2]

Meanings

Verb

1. (military) To start or carry out an attack; to attack, assault.^[4][3][1]
2. To commit an act of aggression against a person or a state.^[4][13]
3. (sports, intransitive) To take the initiative in a game.^[4][11]
4. (figurative) To campaign against a situation, a theory or its supporters; to criticize.^[4][5]
5. (law) To contest a court decision or a document in court: a ataca testamentul.^[4][3]
6. To damage, corrode or destroy: Umezeala a atacat zidurile casei.^[4][13]
7. (reflexive, popular) To fall ill with tuberculosis.^[4][3]
8. (reflexive, slang) To get angry.^[4][12]
9. (colloquial) To ask someone for money or a thing with no intention of giving it back.^[3][6]
10. (figurative) To tackle a problem;^[4][11] (music) to begin playing a piece.^[4][11]

Word family

• atacabil
• atacant
• atacator
• contraataca
• inatacabil
• neatacabil

Related words

• atac
• contraatac
• French attaquer
• Italian attaccare

References

1. ^ a b c d Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2011–), Dicționarul etimologic al limbii române (DELR), vol. I: A–B (2011), vol. II: C (2015–2018), București: Editura Academiei Române; continued online at delr.lingv.ro, p. s.v. ataca
3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2010), Micul dicționar academic, 2nd ed., 4 vols., București: Univers Enciclopedic Gold, p. 1, 120
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m DEX (2009), Dicționarul explicativ al limbii române [Explanatory dictionary of the Romanian language], Bucharest: Editura Univers Enciclopedic, p. 70
5. ^ a b Marcu, Florin (2000), Marele dicționar de neologisme, București: Saeculum Vizual, p. s.v. ataca
6. ^ a b c d e f Tiktin, Hariton (2000–2005), Rumänisch-deutsches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., revised by Paul Miron and Elsa Lüder, 3 vols., Cluj-Napoca: Clusium, p. s.v. ataca
7. ^ a b c d e Academia Română (1913–1949), Dicționarul limbii române (DA), ed. Sextil Pușcariu, tom I (A–B, C, D–De) and tom II (F–I, J–Lojniță), București: Socec / Universul / Monitorul Oficial și Imprimeriile Statului; page scans at cflr-scans.solirom.ro, p. s.v. ataca
8. ^ a b Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. attaquer
9. ^ Pontbriant, Raoul de (1862), Dictiunaru romano-francesu, Bucuresci: A. Ulrich / Göttingen: Dieterich, p. 53
10. ^ Șăineanu, Lazăr (1929), Dicționar universal al limbei române, 6th ed., Craiova: Scrisul Românesc, p. 42
11. ^ a b c d Marcu, Florin; Maneca, Constant (1986), Dicționar de neologisme, 3rd ed., București: Editura Academiei Republicii Socialiste România, p. s.v. ataca
12. ^ a b Volceanov, George (2007), Dicționar de argou al limbii române, București: Niculescu, p. s.v. ataca
13. ^ a b Academia Română, Institutul de Lingvistică „Iorgu Iordan – Al. Rosetti” (2002), Noul dicționar explicativ al limbii române, București: Litera Internațional, p. s.v. ataca